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Sony raising PS Plus pricing by 33%

PS Plus Essential, Extra, Premium Price Increases Announced by Sony

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/08/ps-plus-essential-extra-premium-price-increases-announced-by-sony

As much as $40 more

Tier                          Original Pricing.       New Pricing
PS Plus Essential	£49.99 / $59.99	£59.99 / $79.99
PS Plus Extra	        £83.99 / $99.99	£99.99 / $134.99
PS Plus Premium	£99.99 / $119.99	£119.99 / $159.99

33+% is quite a hike, considering that Sony doesn't offer PS+ Day 1 Launches, unlike Xbox. I hope they start offering their games day one, else people will start to unsubscribe.

It's a bummer, since I like PS+ Extra a lot (don't get PS+ Premium, it's not worth it)

Also very scummy of them to hide their pricing update behind the Sept PS+ monthly games blogpost

92 comments

donuts

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Save your money, buy a Steam Deck or a desktop PC, play games online with the internet service that you already pay a shit ton of money for, and don't look back. It's really stupid that we allowed game consoles to charge us to play online.

arefx

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Steam deck is a great way to get into PC gaming if you don't have a lot of money or a PC. It can run a lot of games. Enough that you won't get bored any time soon.

RogueBanana

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I would say a pc would be cheaper if ur on a budget as u can easily get a bunch of used hardware and rig it together till you can afford something better for an upgrade

arefx

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Eh maybe if you're hands on and want to take the time to find the deals on the parts. You could just dock a steam deck and plug in a key board mouse and monitor.

bitwolf

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Agreed. I built up a nice console PC using a used HP Pavilion Gaming PC.

Threw in a 50$ 32gb ram kit and a 60$ 2tb SSD.

Total cost <450$ and it's a bit faster than a Steam Deck.

I wouldn't call this beginner friendly compared to a deck, but the potential cost savings are real.

verysoft

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Yeah, if you can, get a PC, they might cost more initially but they pay for themselves in the long run. No reason to own a console.

I bet Steam machines would do better if they were released now.

sarsaparilyptus

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I'm not a console owner, are PlayStation owners really giving Sony $60 a year to play online multiplayer? It shouldn't cost anything in the first place. If Valve or GoG or anyone else started trying to tell me I had to pay them extra to send certain packets through my router, I'd have a good laugh.

Gordon_Freeman

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I’m not a console owner, are PlayStation owners really giving Sony $60 a year to play online multiplayer?

It all started with the Xbox, since people did not questioned it and received it with open arms the others (Sony and Nintendo) just copied it. It's just matter of time we end up paying on PC too

Teils13

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PC gaming is actually a competitive market that would still give players options to escape that (Gog, steam, Epic, itch and humble dumble, hell even Microsoft store and company launchers), it is not guaranteed to never happen because cartels happen, but it is far more hard and improbable than consoles, which are locked-down computers with unbreakable monopolies installed in then, at the mercy of the feudal lord of choice. PS: not to mention, Piracy, emulators and Libre games on linux.

strongarm

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Agreed, the best attempt was the subscription model for mmorpgs, but even that hasn't been ubiquitous

Satiric_Weasel

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Yo-ho-ho matey.

DoucheBagMcSwag

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PCMR. No paid online bullshit

belated_frog_pants

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Microsoft is seeing to that as fast as they can

ombremad

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Microsoft actually tried that during the 360 era with their "Games for Windows Live" service. You had to pay Live "Gold" in order to play online for those games, the exact same subscription required for online gaming on Xbox.

The whole service was so poorly done, so intrusive, and so un-PC, that it didn't stick with PC gamers.

Nowadays, with quite a few PC gamers already paying for the Game Pass subscription and a rather streamlined experience for PC, I wonder if things would turn out differently somehow.

Omegamanthethird

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It was a discussion. And XBox Live was a significantly better experience than PSN. A lot of people were happy to have the premium online experience on PS4 vs the barebones PS3 experience.

To be clear, I had PS Plus on the PS3 when it was just unlocked (free-ish) games and extra discounts. And most of my favorite playstation multiplayer was on the PS3. So I was mostly indifferent to the change.

ampersandrew

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It used to be charging you to send packets through servers that they (in this case, Sony) own, but now that may or may not be the predominant use case in this era of games as a service where the developer needs to run the game through their own servers anyway. The reason Valve, Epic, and CD Projekt don't charge you for it is because you're paying for it every time you buy a game through their stores, which also used to be a less prominent situation on consoles, but now well more than half of games are bought digitally on consoles as well. So PC has taken more and more market share while consoles continue upping the price of their mandatory subscription fees for online play, and one day they'll sit there scratching their heads, wondering where all of their customers went.

incendiaryperihelion

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While this is true, it does at least provide access to a large library of games 🤷‍♂️ im certainly not thrilled about the increase but when your primary game platform is ps5, what can you do

Teils13

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Large library of games is factually incorrect, you just do not know the scale of games in existence. Far more titles in Steam, gog, itch io, and with emulation this all goes to the square power, the largest library of games is a PC.

NightOwl

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Sell the PS5.

RxBrad

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vinceman

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Do you keep them or do you have to be subscribed to play them? Really gonna sway my opinion on this tbh.

Mr_Buscemi

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You gotta keep your subscription active to play those games.

At least Xbox let you always keep the Xbox 360 games that were on free each month until they canceled that earlier this year.

NightOwl

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I never did. I only got a PS4 for single player exclusives back in the day. Refused to pay for online access and had no interest in paying a monthly fee for rentals when I already had a backlog. And had my PC for everything else.

nfsu2

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I did for a long time, now its to expensive to subscribe. Not to mention AAA games being a $80 piece of bloated garbage.

Xanvial

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If it's free games (like Fortnite) there's no need to pay ps plus subscription

shiveyarbles

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It's a good thing we all got 33% pay raises... Right?

Zevlen

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Sparkko

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The higher upfront hardware costs of a decent PC become more worth it every day. Screw Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

NightOwl

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And it's capable of productivity with free tools like blender, visual studio code, and da vinci resolve. So that extra hardware can be used beyond just gaming.

SirSauceLordtheThird

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I view my pc as a hobbyist's tool, instead of solely a gaming device. It has helped me learn many things outside of gaming, all the information it can get me and all the things i can do on it are frankly overwhelming.
Totally worth what I paid for this pc, 100%.

jcarax

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And let's not forget porn.

Zevlen

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NightOwl

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Yeah, looking for non video game related reasons to make use of the hardware makes me appreciate the flexibility that more open hardware allows.

bitwolf

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And you can play all of your historical games, and emulate every console since the dawn of time.

Jaxseven

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Let's not forget to mention the Steam Deck's low price for pretty great PC gaming. Even more so for the refurbished entry models which are nearly the same price as the last GPU I recommended to someone (secondhand 6700 XT). I've been surprised how good of an experience I've had with Baldur's Gate 3 on the Deck.

Fapper_McFapper

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Well goodbye PS plus it was nice while it lasted. Jesus Christ why does every fucking service have to enshitify? Why goddamnit?!

VentraSqwal

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I know it's become a meme, but because capitalism. I'm surprised gamers more gamers aren't against it because it only ever makes our favorite hobby so much worse.

NightOwl

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I stopped being amazed when console gamers argued on behalf of a billion dollar corporation for why online multiplayer had to be paid.

whatthecaptcha

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Yeah I'm not going to pay any more than what I already pay for PS+ just to help people on Elden Ring. I don't play any of the shit they give you on PS+ anyway so I'm out.

Richie030

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I've got premium till May next year, always buy on Black Friday sales, cancelled my renewal, I can't justify that price. Hopefully everyone cancels their renewal, they get the message and undo the damage.

Omegamanthethird

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I'm probably switching from Premium to Essential. I might drop it completely. I really don't game online much.

DoucheBagMcSwag

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Does Sony really think they can charge more than fucking Game Pass???

Anticorp

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Are they still going to auto renew this shit even though they massively increased the price? That should be illegal. I would have never seen the increase until after it was billed if not for this post.

Do you guys remember when prices used to go up like 3-5%? I guess corporations started taking notes from the fricken DMV.

gk99

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Considering their subscription competitor costs $204 a year while they were at $120/yr, I think it's pretty clear why they boosted the upper tiers so much. Even with this price increase, it's still $44 cheaper than Ultimate and imo a better overall value in terms of game quality.

What's really trash is that they're increasing the price of the base PS+ membership, and by so much. It now costs $150 a year to play just Madden, CoD, or EA Soccer, on top of a minimum $400 console purchase. That's absurd. I would say this is a W for Xbox, but they already tried to increase the price of Gold and they'll definitely try again now that they know there's no escaping it.

...Other than buying a PC.

szczuroarturo

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Oh yeach paying for playing online games is such a bulshit. I never really complained about it online beacuse i was buying ps plus on ps3 when it only gave you games ( beacuse i do buy it only for games and i would never pay it to play online games) so it never really affected me but this is such a bs. Im suprised there wasnt a bigger outcry against it.

Skiptrace

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Gold is going away and getting a value increase. It's becoming "Gamepass Core" it retains Online function, and gets 25 Gamepass Games.

Microsoft only increased the price by like, 2 dollars. Not this nonsense.

Anticorp

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The base tier is entirely bullshit. You shouldn't need to pay them money to access the internet that you already pay another company for. The base tier shouldn't exist.

XTornado

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I mean... Usually in this cases once they charge you you can still ask for a refund as long as it hasn't passed a lot of days but yeah I agree is shit.

mino

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red

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The subscription also includes free games, though

NightOwl

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"rentals" since they cease to work once the subscription lapses. Just like how Netflix isn't giving away free movies and TV shows.

Gordon_Freeman

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To have access to those "free games" you have to pay first, so how come they are free when they are asking money for them?

Free is this:

https://www.gog.com/en/game/hero_of_the_kingdom_ii

No payments required and you keep it forever

Aradina

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Only if you continue paying. You lose access when you stop. So, they're not free, you pay monthly for them.

Whirling_Ashandarei

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Those are the catalogue games, but you also get the monthly free games that once claimed are yours. They are considered "purchased" I believe.

Edit: I'm wrong, did some googling.

ScoobyDoo27

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Those games are not purchased. You lose them when you unsubscribe to ps plus.

Whirling_Ashandarei

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Yep, just looked it up to make sure and I'm wrong. Wow, that sucks. I was already halfway out the door on my way to PC, this just confirms that.

jjjm182

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New PC upgrade it is!

Anticorp

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dinckelman

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If you guys ever wonder why a seemingly modern computer goes for half of what a normal PC costs, this is why. They'll milk you dry with subscriptions like this

xerazal

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Whelp, I was keeping the sub purely because the games they give you monthly and so my ex could still play online, but nvm. Gonna cancel because it's not worth the cost. The games they give out monthly are usually mid and the online services haven't improved since the PS3 days when it was free.

Still don't have a PS5, and definitely not getting one now. Fuck off, Sony.

Computerchairgeneral

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Well, that's another reason to consider completely switching over to gaming on PC. The free games are nice, but the quality always varies month to month and I really have to wonder if it's worth it to stay subscribed.

dawnerd

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They’re not free.

any1th3r3

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considering that Sony doesn’t offer PS+ Day 1 Launches, unlike Xbox

They don't offer them as often as on Game Pass, but there are some day 1 launches on Extra.

As with most subscription models, the value proposition will probably decrease as we move forward (one only has to glance at streaming services to see what awaits us in the gaming space imo...). Bummer, but expected.

Sharpiemarker

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I share your sentiment. I previously owned an Xbox 360 but had been in the Sony camp for the past decade. For a few months I had a gamepass subscription without an Xbox console and I'm currently a PS+ premium member. The fact that you get day 1 access to first-party titles from Microsoft AND they have a gamepass streaming app on Android and PC is huge. I may have to reconsider the value proposition of my Sony services.

Star_FOX_dew_HOUND

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Yup just cancelled my subscription, once i followed the link to confirm from Playstation not heresy. And yeah what a way to announce it, douches.

I'm a long time Playstation fan, had every system.

sigh

storksforlegs

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By comparison Nintendo charges 24.99 a year (In Canada) Its a much simpler service but you also get access to some of their old catalogue online.

Or even cheaper just use Steam.

DeathWearsANecktie

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Hahaha fuck. I could never go back to console.

BruceTwarzen

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I keep forgetting that stuff ain't free

HawlSera

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looks up from her PC Gaming Rig You guys are paying for online plah?

JokeDeity

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Jesus I'm so glad I haven't bought a console since the N64. Console players just get non-stop reamed.

kratoz29

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Well, to be fair the N64 didn't have any online capabilities, but I get your point.

Apeeksiht

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Ah yes sell these consoles at discount in one month raise the subscription plans next month. Win-win

nicktron

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Thanks for the info. Canceled today.